ITV

Tag: TV ratings agencies

  • MIB to implement TRP committee recommendations and bring back news ratings soon: Anurag Thakur

    MIB to implement TRP committee recommendations and bring back news ratings soon: Anurag Thakur

    Mumbai: The union minister of information and broadcasting Anurag Thakur has said that the I&B ministry will ensure that the recommendations in the TRP committee’s report are implemented swiftly and news channels ratings are brought back to give relief to news broadcasters.

    The minister was addressing the News18 India Chaupal summit held on 1-2 December. In conversation with News18 Hindi managing editor Amish Devgan, he said that broadcasters’ associations have shared their comments on the report within the given deadline.

    The I&B ministry had reached out to broadcasters in November seeking their comments on the report by 30 November. The 39-page report highlights 20 recommendations to restore faith in the integrity of the TV rating system in India. The TRP committee was formed in response to the TRP scam that broke out in October last year where three TV channels were named by Mumbai Police for allegedly tampering with rating data.

    The recommendations were aimed towards strengthening corporate governance at Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc) India which is the premier TV audience measurement company in the country. There were also recommendations pertaining to the technical, technological, and regulatory aspects of the TV measurement system like the use of return path data (RPD), instituting a regulatory mechanism for media rating agencies, adopting an open data ecosystem, and moving towards a hybrid audience measurement.

    The four-member committee included IIT Kanpur professor of the statistics department of mathematics and statistics Dr Shalabh, C-DOT executive director Dr Rajkumar Upadhyay and Decision Sciences Centre for Public Policy professor Pulak Ghosh and led by chairperson and Prasar Bharati chief executive officer Shashi Shekhar Vempati.

  • TAM applies for registration with MIB

    TAM applies for registration with MIB

    MUMBAI: When Kantar Market Research Services, a shareholder of India’s only operational ratings agency TAM Media Research, decided to go to court against the government’s cross-shareholding norms for television ratings agencies, there was a big question mark on the future of TAM.

     

    But as Kantar on 11 February succeeded in obtaining a stay on the cross-shareholding norms from the Delhi High Court till a judgement is delivered on its petition, it had some hope that TAM could continue to operate as a television ratings service provider.

     

    The court granted TAM two weeks after the guidelines take effect on 15 February to apply for registration with the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB).  It had time till the end of next week to apply, but it submitted its registration application much earlier, on Friday.

     

    Kantar CEO Eric Salama confirmed to indiantelevision.com that TAM has submitted its application for being registered as a television ratings service provider.

     

    However, there is no clarity on the period within which the ministry will take a decision on TAM’s application for registration.

     

    There are various scenarios that can play out in the coming weeks for TAM. Further hearing on the Kantar petition will happen on 6 March.

     

    The first but highly unlikely scenario is the ministry acting on TAM’s application and before 6 March accepts the company as eligible to be granted a registration certificate. The next step will be the company, its board of directors, MD, CEO and CFO going through a security clearance.

     

    The second scenario is that the ministry rejects TAM’s application before 6 March, which also seems highly unlikely, or that the application is rejected after the hearing on 6 March. This could lead to Kantar filing an appeal against the government’s rejection of its application either in the High Court or in the Supreme Court and praying for allowing continuity in their business in the country. While granting the stay on cross-shareholding  norm, the court had also allowed TAM to continue to publish their television ratings.

     

    The third scenario could be the government asking TAM to submit more documents. In such a case, Kantar could approach the Delhi High Court for more time to submit the documents sought by the government.

     

    The fourth and more probable scenario is that the ministry may not act on TAM’s application till the Delhi High Court verdict on cross-shareholding is delivered. If the ministry finally rejects TAM’s application, Kantar may go in appeal against it.

     

    Finally, in the event of the Delhi High Court upholding the cross-shareholding norm, Kantar could either go in appeal against the verdict in the Supreme Court or may decide to restructure shareholding of TAM to comply with the government’s shareholding regulations.

     

    The government’s norm requires that shareholders of a television ratings agency should not hold more than a 10 per cent stake in broadcasters, advertising agencies or other television ratings agencies.

     

    In all, it seems like TAM has got some time to continue publishing its television viewership ratings in the country.